Coming to you every Friday: interviews with FKT-setters and other athletes in the world of Fastest Known Times.
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We talk with the #2 and #1 Fastest Known Time of the Year winners! They tell their own stories, which are amazing listening.
"I consider myself a relatively normal person without any particularly special skills. I simply had an idea and dedicated myself to training to make it happen."
(Find out what this person did - her definition of "normal" is very "relative"!)
From very long trails in the desert to the highest mountain on the continent, the stories are great:
The #5, #4, and #3 FKTOY for ladies and gents. And EVERY one of these Athletes is on air - 8 people total! Extremely interesting and inspirational - listen to these people in their own words.
"I have been chasing what makes me feel alive, what I see is possible, and what scares me...this FKT passion is about the experience, it is about the creativity, it’s about living in a way that’s “worth it” for my own values."
This year's FKTOY coverage is brought to you by the running apparel company, rabbit. Thanks for supporting the companies that support Fastest Known Times!
Five women and five men will be awarded for the best FKTs in 2019. Who will they be? Peter Bakwin (Episode 65) and Andrew Skurka (Episode 26) discuss what inspired them this year.
We created short selections from 7 of our best podcasts! Including our very first from September 2018. Each segment is only 3-11 minutes long.
630 FKTs this year (and more coming in every day) ... what's new and cool?
"More women, and more women going solo on technical routes"
There were no big efforts this year on the big routes, like the AT, PCT, R2R2R, JMT ... the existing times are too fast!
"The low-hanging fruit has been plucked"
Who will be the FKTOY winners? What do YOU think?
These two high intensity people run together, work together, and live together: how does that work?
"Unlike having a training buddy, being in a relationship is both wonderful and super super challenging."
I thought we were just going to talk about the good stuff?
"No, let's talk about the shitty parts!"
Josh has run in 13 different countries in a single day, and run a 5k in all 50 states in 6 days! Like the Jared Campbell Episode 61, Josh is a spreadsheet maestro.
"The elite talent I lack can be made up for in logistical planning."
Josh lives in Michigan and sets FKTs in the western mountains - Midwesterners take note - you can do this!
"R2R2R.alt has the same elevation profile as the over-crowded R2R2R, but besides being much more remote and thin, requires you swim the Colorado River. If you mess up, you'll really mess up"
The success or failure - and misery or enjoyment - of a project is often dependent on your partner! Everyone intuitively knows this but we rarely hear any discussion about it - so let's discuss it with Jared Campbell.
Potential partners should talk in advance to ascertain:
Jared discusses the 4 key components (important links below) - - -
What is the relationship between speed and safety? What is the boundary and how do you know when you're hitting it? Ultrarunners have the fitness to get really far into the backcountry, but do they have the skill and experience to get back safely?
"People are drawn to these routes, because they're super aesthetic, iconic lines. But are they over their head?"
"You can download a .gpx file and just follow your watch on a trail, but on technical terrain, that doesn't work."